Category Archives: Part 4- Light

Highly reflective surfaces can be a challenge to light and this exercise looks at one method of doing so.

The instructions ask that I gather an object so shiny that I can see my face in it and some large sheets of tracing paper. I selected a metal cake slice and placed it on the floor with the camera fitted to a tripod above it and pointing downwards. I fitted my Speedlight to the camera, set it to 1/16 power and then took a photograph.

Light next to camera,48mm, f/5.3, 1/2s, ISO 100

The metal is very brightly lit with large areas of white where the flashlight has reflected off of the metal. There is also an area of green, the reflection of a plant that was sitting nearby. The metal is bright because direct reflections area mirror image of the light source that produces them (Hunter et al , 2012, p38).

For the next shot the tracing paper came into play, or in this case, baking parchment that I had at home. I was asked to form the paper into a cone shape where the small end would cover the lens of the camera and the wide end would t around the subject without being seen by the camera. This was an extremely fiddly task. As the baking parchment was in a roll I had to fix several strips together to make one large piece of paper. Sticky tape, somewhat ironically, didn’t stick so I then tried glue stick, which seemed to do the trick. After several attempts I managed to get the paper into a cone shape and fit it over my lens, holding it in place with an elastic band. The ‘cone’ wouldn’t keep its shape and requires several adjustments to keep it out of the viewfinder. I kept the Speedlight on my camera but positioned on the exterior of the paper cone. I then took the shot.

Diffused light has minimised glare,48mm, f/5.3, 1/2s, ISO 100

The bright, white reflections are gone and now the metal appears grey. This is because firing the flash through the baking parchment has sufficiently diffused the light, softening it and eliminating the glare.

The bright, white reflections are gone and now the metal appears grey. This is because firing the flash through the baking parchment has sufficiently diffused the light, softening it and eliminating the glare.

However had the metal object I had chosen as a subject had a rounded shape, such as a kettle, this technique may not have eliminated all reflections and may even have reflected the camera in the metal. Hunter et al (20012, p148) notes that when lighting a round piece of metal the family of angles consists of almost the whole environment. This causes everything to be reflected, camera included. The almost 360 degree family of angles can be seen in the shot below.

Rounded metal and glass bottles,40mm, f/5.3, 1/13s, ISO 100

Hunter et al (2012, p148) suggest three ways to eliminate the camera reflection when photographing metal. They are to camouflage it with texture or additional subjects in the scene, which is what I think has happened in the shot above. To keep the light off the camera by covering it in black material of using a long lens and alternatively, by using a light tent.

This exercise has been useful in introducing me to some ways that it might be possible to successfully light metal. However, it would seem before embarking on lighting sets ups it would be wise to consider if I want the metal bright, dark or a combination of both, which Hunter et al (2012, 131) describe as the elegant compromise.

This exercise looks at some of the options available when you don’t want to light a whole scene and instead want to concentrate the light on a particular area or object.

The exercise instructions are quite open, asking that I experiment with shaping light on an indoor shoot. It suggested that I use a snoot as a sort of spotlight to concentrate the light.

Snoots

Snoots are tubes that are used to aim light by restricting all light except for that in the exact direction the light is pointed. DIY versions can be made easily at home using card or, as I recently discovered through an Internet search, an empty Pringles container.

I didn’t have to do this as I have recently invested in a Flashbenders, positionable reflector that I was able to use this for the task by fixing it into a cylindrical shape with the velcro, positioning it over my speed light head and fixing it in place with the attachment straps.

Grids

Grids are another tool that goes between the light and the subject and controls the light in much the same way as a snoot. As I don’t have one of these at home I undertook a Google search and found out that there were quite a few DIY versions that could be made at home with very few materials. I decided to make a grid from straws that I found on http://www.strobistindex.blogspot.ae. I couldn’t seem to find black straws anywhere so set about colouring the yellow ones I did have with a permanent black marker. Luckily the marker had a broad head and this didn’t take as long as I imagined it would.

The shoot

I initially set up a small arrangement on table with a decorative wooden box and some pieces of jewellery on a black background. However, I couldn’t quite get the ‘spot’ effect that I knew should occur with either the snoot or the grid attached. The light didn’t seem to be concentrating on one area but instead was lighting most of the arrangement. I went back to the drawing board and after some time realised that problems may possibly be

1. The light not positioned far enough away from the subject

2. The arrangement was perhaps too small and therefore the light from the snoot and grid was covering too much area.

I set up another still-life arrangement, this time larger, showing a chair with a purse, scarf and some beads arranged on top of it. I positioned the speed light, high on a stand, some distance away from the arrangement, facing the chair and pointing down. I began shooting with the snoot attached to the speed light. I began with the flash on the weakest power, 1/128 flash output and then gradually increased it to find a level, which lit the scene best.

I intentionally made the scene dark so that the spotlight effect would be clearly seen, however this created major problems for the exposure and resulted in clipped shadows in the exposure. Therefore, I had to brighten the room a little with light from a small tungsten lamp, positioned at the far end of the room, behind the speed light. I also used Bulb mode and a shutter release cable.

With snoot,f/4.2, 1/2s, ISO 160

I took first a shot with the snoot attached to the flash at ¼ flash output and then with the grid attached. I converted both images to black and white in PSE 11 to keep the emphasis on the light and dark tones of the scene without the distraction of colour.

The snoot has directed the light towards the chair top lighting the objects that sit there. The light fall off from this spot has left the upper corners of the scene quite dark which helps to isolate the chair as the main subject.

With grid26mm, f/4.2, 1.3s, ISO 160

After a few test shots I realised that with the grid attached to the speed light that I would require a longer exposure time. Even after doing this you can see that the overall image is darker as the spread of the light is tighter than with the snoot. While the shadows are not clipped the histogram does show a predominately dark distribution of tones.

histogram for grid shot

What influenced the different results?

The flash output and light to subject distance were the same in both photograph, therefore the light intensity was the same, just distributed differently. This got me thinking about the individual qualities of both of these light-shaping tools. What was it about the grid that directed the light in a narrower spread? I searched through my textbooks and various photography websites before I got some answers to my questions.

In photography lighting for dummiesit states that it is the length of tube in a snoot or grid (or straws in my case) that defined the shape of the light. The longer the tube, the more defined the light. In terms of the spread of light it seems it is the diameter of the tube that influences how wide or narrow the spread of light is. The more constricted the tube, smaller the resulting light. The snoot I used was approximately 8cm across, resulting in a wider spread of light, while each of the straws I used were 0.5cm across, resulting in a narrow spread of light.

This also made me think that had I used a snoot or grid with narrower tubes that I may have got better results on my initial attempts at concentrating the light onto the tabletop still-life arrangement.

Conclusions

This was an interesting exercise that I seemed to have spent a rather long time on. However, carrying it out has encouraged me to experiment and seek out further information on how light behaves and how the light modifiers work.

Both the shop bought and home-made light modifiers worked well and produced interesting results. However, as I now know that the width of the hole and length of the tube affect the spread and definition of the light I can now experiment with some more DIY tools to concentrate the light. Perhaps using longer straws with narrower diameters attached to a snoot…

Präkel (2009) describes contrast as the difference in brightness between the darkest and lightest parts of an image. The course notes advise that in daylight, particularly on a large-scale, there is little a photographer can do to change the contrast of the scene, except perhaps wait for the light to change. However, when photographing indoors the contrast can be controlled in a number of ways.

This exercise looks at how reflectors, objects that reflect much of the light that falls on them, can be used to shape light by filling the shadows of a scene with light to varying degrees.

Präkel (2007, p116) notes that almost any large surface can be used to reflect light. Home made examples; a large white card (around 2ft-3ft) and some aluminum cooking foil are suggested by the course notes.

Set up

Instructions for set up were as follows-

Set up a simple still-life shot that will leave room for access at the sides of the scene.

Set the camera on a tripod to shoot from the same level as the still-life.

Fix a light about 2-3 feet to one side of the still-life and at its level, so that it is at right angles to the camera’s view

Have the card, aluminum foil and a diffuser to hand.

I decided upon a simple vegetable still-life against a plain black background. I put a speed light on a stand and positioned this to the right of the still-life. After a few test shots I decided upon 1/32 flash power. The camera was positioned in front, facing the still-life. As I was shooting under low light (except for the flash) I opted to use a wide aperture.

I gathered the card, foil and the speed light’s diffusion dome and placed these close by. To this assortment I also added a, recently purchased but not yet used, 5 in 1 reflector set.

Exercise

I carried out the exercise instructions (and adding a few steps to incorporate the 5 in 1 reflector) took the following photographs.

1. Without a diffuser on the speed light.

Without a diffuser the light is small and high contrast. This has caused bright highlights on both tomatoes and on the top of the pepper. There is a hard shadow of the pepper on the background cloth and of the pepper and the green beans on the left of the frame where no light has entered the shadow (Hunter et al, 2012, p19). The colour of the tomatoes appears washed out by the white light.

1. Without diffusor,68mm, f/4.5, 2s, ISO 250

2. With a diffuser on the speed light.

The highlight spots on the vegetables are smaller than previously. The diffuser has made the light larger and scattered it. Some of the light has entered the shadow areas making the shadows softer. (Hunter et al, 2012, p21)

I had difficulty focusing in this image due to low light, therefore I adjusted the composition and exposure slightly. This has made it difficult to directly compare the contrast in this image with the previous one. Although there does look to be slightly more highlighted areas on the fruit.

According to Präkel (2007, p116) reflected light behaves in the same way as a main light source which means it follows the inverse square law. The inverse square law states that the intensity of light observed from a constant source falls off as the square of the distance from the source. (p13). Put simply, by moving the reflector half as close as previous you double its effect, meaning twice as much reflected light.

Gold reflectors work like other reflectors by directing light back onto the subjects, however, gold reflectors ‘warm up’ the reflected light Präkel (2007, p116). The contrast in the image using the gold reflector is similar to the that of the white reflector although on close inspection the contrast is slightly less around the dark areas of the pepper stem and the green beans. The pepper is also very slightly more yellow with the gold reflector.

The silver reflector seems to have reflected a lot more light onto the scene than the white reflector. The left side of the pepper is lighter and markings can be seen while a new small highlight spot can now be seen reflected in the peppers skin on the far left of the frame.

7. Silver reflector,55mm, f/5.6, 1s, ISO 320

8. Card covered with aluminum foil, dull side facing outwards, and take photograph.

The dull sided foil has reflected a lot of light back into the shadows. In particular those on the cloth covering the tabletop and under the pepper on the right side.

Card covered in foil, dull side facing out.55mm, f/5.6, 1s, ISO 320

9. Card covered with aluminum foil, shiny side facing outwards, and take photograph.

Unfortunately the focus on the shot was off and I failed to notice this at the time of shooting. I have still included it though as you can see that the shiny side of the foil has filled the shadows underneath the peppers and tomatoes and also in the shadows cast by the dries chillies.

Foil shiny side facing out,55mm, f/5. 1s, ISO 320

10. Card covered with crushed, then smoothed, aluminum foil with the shiny side facing out. Take photograph.

Rather surprisingly, the crumpled but smoothed foil seemed to reflect the same, if not more, light than the smooth foil. Possibly because the light is being scattered at many different angles?

I am now asked to compare the photographs and arrange then in order of contrast from highest to lowest.

Highest contrast,without diffuser and no reflector.

With diffuser

White card at 3ft

White card at 1.5ft

White reflector.

Golf reflector

Silver reflector

Card covered in foil, dull side facing out.

Lowest contrast, Crushed then smoothed foil, shiny side facing out.

Lowest contrast, Foil shiny side facing out.

The naked lamp without a diffuser resulted in the highest contrast image. The contrast was then reduced by the use of a diffuser and then various light reflectors which reflected light back onto the scene filling the shadows. In this instance, the foil seemed to do this best because of it’s directly reflective quality.

Conclusions

This exercise has shown me that there are several tools available to help the photographer control contrast to varying degrees. Interestingly, the foil and white card gave similar results to the commercial kit which is good to know for the occasions where I don’t have it on me.

The big decision, it would seem, is for the photographer to decided how much contrast do they want in their scene and therefore how much shadow fill is necessary.

For this particular exercise, the one with the most shadow fill was not necessarily the best option. I preferred the shots with a medium amount of contrast, perhaps with the white card and white reflector.

Conversely, it is good to know that should I wish to increase contrast further at the time of shooting. I can do this by moving a naked lamp further away from the subject or by substituting a reflector for a black piece of card.

Präkel (2007, p120) notes that the direction from which light falls on to a subject has a major impact on the viewers ‘reading’ of the image. This exercise will help to illustrate this as we look at the effects of moving the lighting angle. The instructions are as follows-

Select a subject. It should be no bigger than the diffuser in front of the light. It should be rounded and have a variety of planes to show areas of light and shadow.

Position the subject on a small level surface with a plain background.

Fix the camera onto a tripod and aim it at the subject.

Fit the light with a diffuser and move it around the subject taking with the light in front of the camera, from the side, from behind and to one side and from directly behind.

Raise the light so that it point to the subject at angle of approximately 45 degrees. Again, move the light around the subject.

Suspend the light above the subject, pointed down. Take three pictures: directly overhead, slightly in front and from slightly behind.

Study the photographs to note the effect the lighting position has on showing the subject’s shape and form.

I selected a small trinket box as the subject for this exercise as it met the criteria in terms of shape and size. I used a speed light as the light source and placed it on a stand to be triggered wirelessly from my camera. I also closed the curtains in the room to minimise light from sources other than the speed light. As I was working in low light and long exposure times I used a shutter release cable.

Light level with subject

Front

Front55mm, f/5.6, 8s, ISO 125

Präkel (2007, p158) notes that when light falls directly flat onto a subject very little texture will be revealed. This can be seen here. The frontal lighting has made the image very low contrast. There are no shaded areas to be seen on the carved box lid making it appear flat and 2-dimensional.

Side

55mm, f.5.6, 10s, ISO 125

Präkel (2007, p158) advises that side lighting is effective for emphasising texture in an object as the light skims over the surface showing the micro contrasts. Side lighting has done this here by showing areas of shadow and highlight and modelling the subject’s surface.

Behind and to one side

Behind and to one side55mm, f/5.6, 8s, ISO 125

There is quite a lot of highlight on the lid surface that contrasts with the areas of shade on the underside of the lid and the left side of the face and arms. The lighting behind and to one side has caused a large shadow to fall around the left side of the box. Präkel (2007, p157) states that a cast shadow is helpful in revealing form as the shadow anchors a solid object on a plane and enhances the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional page

Behind

Behind 1,55mm, f/4.8, 1/4s, ISO 200, -4 EV

I spent quite some time on this part of the exercise adjusting the flash’s power and experimenting with exposure compensation while attempting to capture a silhouette without clipping any highlights or shadows. I changed the background to white to enable the shape of the subject to be seen.

There are still some details visible in the silhouette, despite my best efforts. I have since read on several photography websites (http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-silhouettes and http://photofocus.com/2013/08/09/how-to-photograph-a-silhouette/) that when trying to take a silhouette photograph it is better to expose for the background. So perhaps this is where I was going wrong? However it is clear that back lighting is effective at showing shape, although I quickly realised that the side-on view of the box was not a very distinctive shape and that the shallow depth of field has rendered some of the outline a little fuzzy. I tried this again with a slightly different arrangement to show the oval shape of the box.

Behind 2, 58mm, f/4.8, 1/8s, ISO 200, -5 EV

This is another photograph of light coming from behind the subject, however this time the camera is not looking towards it. It has created a rim of light around the top edge of the trinket box, which also helps to show its shape.

There also seems to be a pink/orange tone to this image that I wasn’t aware of at the time of shooting.

Behind 3
55mm, f/5.6, 10s, ISO 125

Out of the four possible lighting scenarios I think Side lighting and Behind 3 gave the best results for this subject. They both gave the subject areas of shadow and highlight which helps give a photograph a 3 dimensional appearance.

Light pointing down at 45 degrees

Front

This is fairly low contrast with no real areas of dark shadow or bright highlights.

Side

With the light hitting the subject from the right a few areas of highlight can be seen reflected in the lid. The side lighting helps to emphasis the textures of the carving and it appears more pronounced.

Behind and to one side

The highlights are brighter here and draw the eye. There is also a shadow on the underside of the figures arms and under the flowers. These help reveal the object’s 3 dimensional quality.

Behind

The areas of bright reflection have now gone. The areas of shadow are more defined around the head, on the flowers, under the arms and in the box. The front of the box is in shade and this allows the texture and pattern on the box to be seen. Of these four image this is the one I prefer as the shadows have modelled the box well and also the colours seem less yellow and have more of a brown/pink tint.

Light above

Directly overhead

The light above has resulted in only a little bit of shadow to be seen below the lid. As the lid is sitting at an angle the light above has still provided some shade under the chin, flowers and arms. The front side of the box and left rim of the lid are in shade, which has helped to reveal the texture, which is all but lost in the highlighted areas.

Above, but slightly in front

The angle of light has meant that it has managed to fill a lot of the shadows on the lid and make the contrast quite low. The colours appear very pale and the foreground is quite bright.

Above, but slightly behind

The light has shown up a few areas of highlight on the face, shoulders and on the top of the lid. This contrasts with the shadows and helps reveal the form on the lid.

I think of these three lighting positions above and slightly behind worked best for this subject as it revealed both highlight and shadow and helped to strengthen the solidity of the object.

Conclusions

This exercise has illustrated that the angle and direction of light have a strong influence on how the end image is viewed and to what degree a subject’s qualities are revealed.

Front lighting did little to show the texture of the trinket box in any of the set ups I used and made the image look quite flat. However I do wonder if this would be the case for all subjects? Perhaps a lighting set up that minimizes texture would be good for portrait work?

Back lighting, comes from behind the subject towards the camera was good for revealing an objects shape, although, as I found out when attempting this, gauging a suitable exposure was difficult.

Side lighting is effective for emphasising texture however if there is a grain to the texture, the light should be used across the grain to show this.

Overall, I think the exercise was valuable in showing some of the creative options available using only one light and varying its position and angles. This can be seen in the thumbnails below.

This exercise looks at ways of softening photographic light through diffusion. Hunter et al (2012, p28) describe diffuse transmission as the scattering of light through a translucent material. This has the effect of softening the light, making it less harsh.

The course notes outline some possible ways of constructing a diffuser at home using translucent materials such as tracing paper. However, as I recently purchased a Speedlight for my camera, which includes a diffusion dome, I opted to use this instead.

The exercise instructions are as follows-

Set up a still life arrangement

Take two photographs. One with the naked lamp and one with a diffused light source.

Look at the results and make notes about the differences.

Comparison

I set up a simple still-life arrangement as directed and positioned my Speedlight on my camera. After a few test shots I realised the flash strength was far too strong. I experimented with the Speedlight’s exposure compensation settings before selecting -3EV.

I then took the shots as directed.

No diffuser52mm, f/11, 1s, ISO 100

With diffuser.52mm, f/11, 1s, ISO 100

At first glance there looks to little difference between the two shots, however closer inspection finds several variations. The contrast in the first image is higher with a lot of shaded areas. The shadows also appear to be blacker and denser than in the second image. The diffused light had revealed more details and texture in the shaded section of the dried fruit and it has softened the shadows. Taking all that into account, I think the photograph taken with the diffused light is the better image.

In the spirit of experimentation, I repeated the exercise with a similar arrangement.

There are no shadows to compare here, but again the diffuser has reduced the overall contrast and revealed more details in the shaded areas than is visible in the first shot

Conclusions

This exercise had shown me the difference that diffusing light can have on an image, particularly in softening shadows and allowing detail to be seen. It is both effective and simple to apply, as any translucent material would work to some degree. Präkel (2007, p96) notes that a time-honoured technique for diffusing on-camera flash was to drape a handkerchief over it.

The diffuser would have also been helpful had my subjects been made of reflective materials, as the bright pinpoint reflections of the naked light would have been smoothed out and broadened.

The aim of this exercise is to explore a variety of lighting effects and colours in artificial light.

The exercise instructions askthat we take a range of photographs outdoors at nighttime in a busy location with plenty of brightly lit building and streets. Use a tripod and cable release as appropriate. Try to include the following in your shooting the following:

A floodlit building (look for a viewpoint where the lights themselves are hidden)

A brightly lit store front

A large interior with many people

A raised view looking along a busy road to catch the headlights and tail lights of the traffic as streaks.

A floodlit building

This is a photograph of The Address Hotel, Dubai Marina around one hour after sunset. I composed the photo so that the building is centrally positioned and the tilted view creates diagonal lines to lead the eye upwards. Using a tripod, a shutter-release cable and with the camera in bulb mode I took a few test shots. At f/8 and a two second exposure time the image was seriously under-exposed and the background sky was pitch black. I increased the ISO slightly to ISO 320 and experimented with longer shutter speeds via Bulb Mode, eventually taking the shot at 5-seconds. I experimented with various WB settings in-camera before deciding that tungsten worked best for the scene as it added some blue, which worked well for the sky.

I was quite excited to note that the 5-second exposure time managed to capture some stars in the sky. However, it has also rendered the screen that was showing adverts, on the bottom right, totally white.

Floodlit building,20mm, f/8, 5s, ISO 320, tungsten WB

A brightly lit store front

The exterior of this café/restaurant caught my eye because of the brightly lit signage and the red/green complementary colour scheme. It was also one of the few on that stretch of road that didn’t have condensation on the windows because of the difference in temperature between indoor (cool AC) and outdoors (34c).

I experimented with several compositions but decided that it worked better with the shop front filling the frame. I again used f/16 and ISO 320, with an exposure time of 3-seconds via Bulb Mode. This has captured the exterior of the restaurant quite clearly but caused the movement of the restaurant staff to be blurred that adds to the idea of hustle and bustle.

Storefront,40mm, f/16, 3s, ISO 320

The restaurant was in a busy area of town with lots of other bright lights nearby many of which can be seen reflected in the shop front, such as the fairy-lit palm trees. I can’t quite decide if I like this effect or not. Are the reflected lights distracting, or do they add to the idea of ‘busyness’ and energy? I think perhaps they would have worked okay across the top of the glass if the bottom of the glass were not already decorated with the shop logo. Both are probably too much. It also makes me wonder if a polarising filter on my lens would have helped at all?

A large interior with many people

I chose a view of the interior of Marina Mall, Dubai for this image. The course notes advised that we did not use a tripod for this shot which provided quite a challenge. While the mall seemed bright enough with all the bright lights, the camera required a 1-second shutter speed at f/16 and ISO 100 making it impossible to get a sharp shot. I raised the ISO to 200 and then again to 320 and took this shot at ¼s exposure time, while bracing the camera against a ledge to steady it.

There is a little bit of motion blur from the people moving around the mall which I like, however the overall image seems a little ‘noisy’, particularly when you zoom in. Tungsten WB seemed the best fit for this scene as the others created very strong colour casts.

Shopping mall,22mm, f/16, 1/4s, ISO 320,tungsten WB

Traffic light trails

Light trails, Dubai55mm, f/16, 4.3s, ISO 100, Daylight WB

The exercise instructions suggested an elevated view over a road, such as a pedestrian overpass, for this task. There are numerous pedestrian bridges, which cross Dubai’s busy roads making the Metro system accessible, however they are enclosed to make them air-conditioned and comfortable for commuters.

I decided to explore one of these bridges over Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road to see if shooting would work through the window glass. The glass appeared to be tinted and I took a few test shots to see if this impacted upon the image and noted it did add some blue. After considering this, I decided to work with this, as it would perhaps reinforce the idea of twilight/and or evening light.

I experimented with various positions and set-ups before opting for the camera on a tripod, which was set to its lowest height. This was then placed on a ledge with the lens positioned to look along the road, but also avoiding the horizontal bars, which decorated the exterior of the bridge. I placed the lens as close as I could to the glass while allowing for a little bit of focusing room, then attached the shutter release cable. Then I waited for the sunset.

As I was in a busy location I did attract some curious looks and also the attention of a member of Dubai Police, who, once he had established what I was doing, was happy to leave me to take photographs.

Sunsets seem to happen quickly in this part of the world, which makes working with residual light a very short window of time. The sunset was due at 18:16pm and by 18:30pm the daylight was low enough to make the car trails appear very bright, although not low enough for the buildings to be lit, which could have detracted attention from the light trails.

Using bulb mode, f/16 and ISO this photograph was taken with a 4.4s exposure time.

The red and white light streaks on the highway below can be seen clearly while there are some white and red streaks can also be seen on the slightly elevated road on the left side. I was surprised to note that Daylight WB was the best fit for the low light in this shot. I experimented further with the RAW file in post-processing but found, somewhat ironically, that daylight WB made the scene look more like nighttime than the other WB presets.

Thirty minutes later and all the daylight was gone. I took this shot further along the road (you can see the bridge I was standing on earlier on the right hand side of the frame) looking towards the road and the buildings of Jumeirah Lake Towers.

Light trails 2, Dubai24mm, f/16, 7.1s, ISO 100

I experimented with a few WB balance options in-camera before deciding that fluorescent WB was a good fit here.

Even with a 7.1-second exposure using Bulb mode the image was under-exposed and I had to up the exposure post-processing considerably. With hindsight I wish I had experimented with even longer exposure times. This could have brightened the entire image as well as erase the glimpse of the car from the bottom right of the frame, leaving only it’s light trail. There is also some lens flare from the street lamp closest to the camera, which perhaps could have been avoided if I had been using a lens hood.

I do like the starburst effect from the other streetlights, which I think are actually more dominant in the frame than the car light trails, and the overall contrasting colour palette of red and blue.

Conclusions

This was a varied and interesting exercise that has reinforced the idea that there is not a magic; one-size fits all set up to meet the range of differently lit scenes that I encountered. Instead, it requires a lot of trial and error while tweaking the exposure settings to capture the shot.

This exercise had also encouraged me to experiment with the Bulb Mode function in my camera that I had not done before. I found it a bit of ‘eureka’ moment when I realised why my attempts at nighttime photography before had not been successful. I experimented a little bit more with Bulb Mode as can be seen below.

This exercise involves looking at the different colours of tungsten and fluorescent lighting so that I am able to identify which light is which.

Tungsten light

Tungsten lamps work by heating a filament until it glows. Ordinary household bulbs are tungsten lamps and are sometimes described as incandescent, which simply means glowing. They look orange or yellow to the eye but can photograph reddish. Digital cameras have a tungsten White Balance (WB) setting (called incandescent on my Nikon D5100) which can be used for shooting under tungsten lights which cools down the color temperature in photos

However, Präkel (2007, p77) notes that photographers should not seek to over-correct the yellow quality of tungsten light in domestic scenes, as viewers tend to associate yellow warmth with domestic interiors.

1. The first part of this exercise requires a room lit brightly by tungsten lamps and then waiting till just after sunset. You then look out of the window into the diminishing light for one minute before turning to look at the room light. Note what colour the room light appears. Look again out of the window and think what colour does the daylight appear?

I carried out this task and found that the tungsten lights in the room appeared very yellow, far more so that I recalled them to be. When I looked back outside the window the light looked to be blue. This helped illustrate the fact that our eyes have the ability to quickly adapt to light qualities.

2. The second part of the exercise asks that I measure the light levels in the tungsten lamp lit room. Will the camera at full aperture and the ISO set to 100, I took readings from various parts of the room. An area close to a lamp with a 40W tungsten bulb measure at a shutter speed of 1/10s. A plant in a corner read at 1.5s, as did a darker area leading to a hallway. This was too slow for handheld shooting and the resulting images were blurred. A bookshelf in a corner read at 1/4s and a vase of flowers near to the window measured at 1/8s.

This illustrates two things, the spread of tungsten light across the room was uneven and varied enormously depending on location and also that the quality of tungsten lighting is much weaker than that of daylight, around 2900K for a 40W household light bulb compared with approximately 5500K for daylight.

3. Part three asks that I compose a photograph in which an interior lit by tungsten lamps and the exterior at dusk are visible. When the light levels inside and out are roughly equal, take three photographs adjusting the WB as follows: Auto, daylight and tungsten. Compare the results.

I took these photograph to show both tungsten light and daylight in one image.

Auto WB

Daylight WB

Tungsten WB

The Auto WB shot has given the image an orange tone, more to the objects inside than the buildings in the background outside. The colours do not reflect the original scene.

Daylight WB has given the interior a slight orange colour cast. However, the colours outside are a good match to those in the original scene.

Tungsten WB has captured the colour of the cardigan well and helped to pick up the navy blue of the stripes. The rest of the scene however, has a strong blue colour cast, which looks artificial.

It would seem that there is not one WB camera preset (on my camera) that can accurately balance a scene such as this, with light from differing sources and qualities. Perhaps this could be remedied to some degree by experimenting with a Custom WB setting?

Fluorescent light

Fluorescent light appears white to the eye but can photograph as greenish or yellowy. Präkel (2007, p78) explains that the reasons for this is that fluorescent light does not produce a continuous spectrum of colours, instead, it is a mixture of colour spikes. The quality of light also varies between manufacturers, the age of the light and the cost and application of the light.

Digital cameras usually have one or more WB setting to offset the cool shades of fluorescent by making them brighter and warmer. However, as the temperature of fluorescent lamps is so variable the fluorescent WB preset cannot be the ‘right’ balance all the time.

1. Find two different interiors lit by fluorescent lights. If possible, one should be lit by small CFL (compact fluorescent lights). Take two or three photographs in each location varying the WB from Auto to fluorescent. Compare the results.

The corridors in my apartment building are lit with, what I think are, CFLs therefore I took a photograph along its length with the different WB settings, Auto, which automatically adjusts the white balance and Cool-white fluorescent, the only fluorescent WB setting my camera has.* see note below

Auto WB

Fluorescent WB

Auto WB has given the image a green colour cast while the fluorescent WB has compensated for the perceived coolness of fluorescent by adding‘warmth’ to the image. However, it has over-compensated and the results are very orange.

This basement car park is lit with fluorescent strip lighting.

Auto WB

Fluorescent strip lighting

The Auto WB image seems to contain a lot of blue with the green of the parking bays appearing very pale. The white car closest to the camera also appears bluish, as does the ceiling. The Fluorescent WB seems to have done a better jog at balancing the colours but it still not accurate, as there seems to be a slight pink colour cast to the ceiling.

This has shown me how varied fluorescent lights can be and because of this it is difficult to predict how they may light a scene.

Conclusion

Before this exercise I have tried to take photographs indoors under fluorescent lighting, with varying degrees of success in balancing colours. Now I understand a little more about how these lights differ from tungsten lights, I can appreciate why this would have been the case. Of course, unwelcome colour casts can usually be removed when editing however I think it is of interest to think of what feeling uncorrected light can evoke in an image, such as in Nightmare by Karl Fakhreddine, shown in Präkel (2007, p79).

* Since carrying out this exercise I have discovered that my camera (Nikon D5100) does actually have more than one preset for fluorescent WB. When exploring the shooting menu I found that there were seven fluorescent presets listed as follows-

The problem I now have is now trying to recognise these types of lights accurately. However, it is nice to know the meantime that if I take a photograph with fluorescent WB and it doesn’t look ‘right’, that I have other options to experiment with. 24/09/13